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Wiring Issues

Okay here we go. I was replacing two valves side by side in my system. One went out and I decided to replace the other so I don't have to in the next few weeks with my luck. I have an 8 station controller with 6 valves tied to it. The valves I replaced are valves 5 an 6. 6 wouldn't open up all the way and 5 was just fine. Me thinking it would be a simple wiring issue cut the wires to both valves and took a few days off from it. Now I have the new valves in I can't figure the wiring out. There were 3 grease caps I believe and 2 valves. Some wires were tied together with regular wire caps.

I have 2 black wire of of each new rainbird valve for a total of 4 wires. I then have 1 white wire, 1 Red wire, and 1 blue wire coming from the ground and thats it. I had another valve replaced several months ago and the guy said the wiring looked fine. So all colors are more than likely have normal assignmens of live neutral etc...

Please help me wire these last two valves so I don't have to call the guy out. I did the hard work and want to finish this thing out myself.

Hi Kabby. The white wire is usually the ground wire. You would connect that to both valves. It doesn't matter which wire on the solenoid you use. Then the blue wire goes to one valve and the red to the other. And your done. Simple as pie. But any one of the three maybe the ground wire. Try what I said first and if it doesn't work then come back for more info. Maybe look at the other valves you have and see if the white wire is connected to all the valves. Or look at the timer to see if the white wire is connected to the ground or the C terminal. Good luck!

I will go try. I did wire the white to one black on both valves. When I put the blue on station 6 it went on. When I put it on station 5 it did nothing. The red did nothing on any of them. I will go home and try to do what you said. It seemed like a lot more wire caps than for just what you said. I looked at the other valves and they had 2 whites to one black and then the blue to the other black. I'll let you know.

Hi Kieth. I have a couple of thoughts for you. In your original post you said one of the valves went out. Is it possible the valve wasn't working because the red wire is bad? Also if you still have the old valves you took out maybe the wires are still attached so you can see what colors go where. I'm a little confused though. You said you hooked the blue wire up to valve 6 and it worked but you hooked the same wire you know works up to valve 5 and it doesn't work? Something's fishy there. If you only have three wires there's only three possible ground wires. Simple trial and error will figure it if all three wires are good. Did you say there are extra unused wires in the box? If you find the red wire to be bad then maybe you can substute it with one of the unused wires. That could also be a trial and error issue. Good luck once again!

Kabby,
What model controller do you have on your wall to activate these valves? One thing you might do is to remove the service panel of your controller and take note of the wire colors on the various terminals. This way you will know what color is what, and what color goes where. The "C" or "Com" terminal will be your common / ground wire. Like Mr Fixit said, it is usually white. The other terminals labeled 1,2,3,4 etc... will be your hot side.

I attatched the white to both valves using one black wire from each valve. Valve 6 came on just fine but valve 5 (new) seemed to be trying to open up. You could hear noise coming from it but no water was being let out. I turned the to knobs on the top to make the sprinklers for that sation run manually. That worked and then I shut them off and the valve closed. Bad new valve or do I have it instatlled backwards?

You're gaining on it. Now you see why the repairmen make the big bucks. We make it look easy don't we? Nothing beats experience. And from my experience when I've ran across a homeowner who installed a valve backwards it wouldn't shut off. Of course I've never done that, *cough*. Just look at the solenoid and see if it's on the same side of the valve as the one that works. Then you'll know if it's in backwards. If the solenoid's right in the middle of the valve then you'll have to look for an arrow on the valve which will be pointing in the direction of the waters flow.

If the valve is installed correctly then there might be a couple things going on. It's possible you bought really old stock and the diaphragm is stiff and doesn't want to open. But I doubt that's it. You may have got some dirt or sand in the line and is now inside the valve keeping it from working properly. Using too much glue is a bad thing. Maybe there's glue inside the valve. You may want to turn the water off and take the valve apart and see. It could be a defective valve like you mentioned. I've bought unknowingly returned valves that the previous buyer wrecked and the store puts back on the shelf. Don't give up. You're almost done. Good luck!

Kieth I just read your last post again and I see something. You said you turned two knobs on and off. If you've turned the flow control off the valve wont run. It could very easily do what you've described. Not all valves have a flow control but if yours does it's located right in the middle of the valve on top. You want that approx. half way open. Maybe a tad more.

When I put he valve in I was pretty sure it was facing th eright direction. I even turned the water on before hand to make sure. When I cut the line the pressure side was on the side I expected it to be on. So thats not an issue. What I have is a CP100 Rainbird non thread valve. 1" It has A an Internal Bleed Solenoid which I turned and it came on. It has C an external bleed knob and I turned that and it came on. What I haven't tried is B the CPF flow control. I will try that Monday to adjust that and see if maybe that is the problem. If that doesn't do it I will make another trip to the depot and get a replacement valve ofcourse giving them the bad one.

I do see why you guys make so much for what you do. I'm actuall considering learning this stuff and doing it as a job since everyone in the entire city has a sprinkler system. Is it worth going to school on or just working as an apprentice with another company?

I think mrfixit has the right idea, too much glue. Unscrew the solenoid, under it you will find a small bleed hole about the size of a finish nail, I think that hole is glued from the inside. Use a small nail to push through the hole and break the glue loose. I recently worked a service call on this exact problem. Hope this helps.